Venezuela’s first and only state-owned communications satellite has been out of service since March 13 when a series of maneuvers left it tumbling in an unusable orbit. SpaceNews reports: The VeneSat-1 satellite, built by China Great Wall Industry Corp. and launched in late 2008 on a 15-year mission to provide television and broadband services to Venezuela, has been stuck for 10…
Tag: graveyard
Iran’s Coronavirus Burial Pits Are So Vast They’re Visible From Space
“Iranian authorities began digging a pair of trenches for victims just days after the government disclosed the initial outbreak,” writes Slashdot reader schwit1. “Together, their lengths are that of a football field.” The Washington Post reports: Two days after Iran declared its first cases of the novel coronavirus — in what would become one of the largest outbreaks of the illness…
Printing’s Not Dead: The $35 Billion Fight Over Ink Cartridges
America’s onetime innovation icons are wrestling over their biggest remaining piles of money. From a report: The HP 63 Tri-color ink cartridge retails for $28.99 at Staples. Stuffed with foam sponges drenched in a fraction of an ounce of cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes, this bestseller, model No. F6U61AN#140, can spray 36,000 drops per second in the Envy printers made by…
A TV satellite is about to explode following ‘irreversible’ battery damage
A Boeing satellite is being hastily moved into “graveyard orbit” following a devastating “anomaly” that turned its batteries into bombs. Source: https://www.livescience.com/exploding-directv-satellite-graveyard-orbit.html
TV provider shifting satellite to high orbit over explosion fears
US authorities said Friday they had granted permission to a TV provider to urgently lift a four-ton (3,600-kilogram) satellite to a so-called “graveyard orbit” over fears a battery fault may soon cause it to explode. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-01-tv-shifting-satellite-high-orbit.html…
In New Headache, WeWork Says It Found Cancer-Causing Chemical in Its Phone Booths
Cash-strapped WeWork, the office-sharing company that is trying to negotiate a financial lifeline, has a new problem that may prove costly. From a report: It has closed about 2,300 phone booths at some of its 223 sites in the United States and Canada after it says it discovered elevated levels of formaldehyde. The company, which abandoned plans for an initial public…
Is ‘The Far Side’ Comic Strip Coming Back?
An anonymous reader quotes the Guardian:
Fans of the surreal, the bizarre and sardonic anthropomorphic cows are in a fervour after The Far Side cartoonist Gary Larson’s website was updated last weekend with promises of “a new online era”, 24 years after the reclusive creator retired at the age of 44. Larson’s iconic Far Side cartoons were syndicated in more than 1,900…
Divers Find 2,000-Year-Old Shipwreck Graveyard Near Tiny Greek Island
Ancient sailors courted adventure and risked death on the Aegean Sea, as shown in five 2,000-year-old shipwrecks and a giant, granite anchor pole found near the Greek island of Levitha. Source: https://www.livescience.com/ancient-shipwrecks-found-in-aegean.html
86 Skeletons Unearthed from Hidden Medieval Graveyard in Wales
Archaeologists discovered dozens of bodies in coffin-like stone boxes called cists. Source: https://www.livescience.com/66104-medieval-cemetery-wales-skeletons.html
Medieval Warrior Woman Found in a Viking Graveyard Was No Viking
Analysis of her weapon suggested it came from what is now Poland. Source: https://www.livescience.com/66023-slavic-warrior-woman.html